SAN NARCISO, Calif. -- Ninety-six years after the Ottoman Empire wiped out more than a million Armenians in what historians have credited as the first modern-day pogrom, Kim Kardashian took time from the rigors of her glamorous lifestyle to urge the Turkish government to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. On her Twitter page, Kardashian wrote, “Even though so many countries around the world recognize the Armenian Genocide, the government of Turkey still denies it. I just found out about it myself, and it’s horrifying. Do the right thing, Turkeys [sic].”

Kim, who is half Armenian by way of her deceased father, attorney Robert Kardashian, decided to spotlight the tragic 1915 massacre out of respect for the innocent people who were raped, tortured, and slaughtered three generations before she was born. Over 1,500 Armenian-American activists joined Kim’s cause by flooding the streets of Culver City on Thursday to protest President Obama’s “failure to honor his pledge to recognize the Armenian genocide.”

Kardashian also expressed outrage with Turkish Cosmopolitan Magazine for running her photograph on its cover during the month when Armenians reflect back on the genocide.

As a result of Kardashian’s sudden involvement in the issue, more attention has been paid to the past atrocities than ever before, with the publicity stirring tensions between Turkish and Armenian celebrities. Entertainment sources reported that a recent meeting between Kim Kardashian and Gizem Memiç, Miss Turkey 2010, at a trendy L.A. hotspot turned into a full-fledged brawl.

Memiç is known to American audiences from her starring role in a Carl’s Jr. commercial, where she struts down a beach munching on a turkey burger, wearing a revealing bikini adorned with the images of hundreds of tiny hamburgers. Kardashian, after exchanging heated words with Miss Turkey, allegedly grabbed a burger off another guest’s plate and hurled it at the model’s face. Memiç responded by informing club goers that Kardashian’s “fashion line” had just been picked up by Sears, saying, “They must have made a better offer than the K-mart.”

But activists and historians claim that any celebrity endorsement for a forgotten cause is beneficial.

Bud Popzelski, teacher of cultural studies at San Narciso College, told reporters that “Kim Kardashian has helped illustrate the plight of the Armenian people to contemporary Americans. Sure, it took almost a century, but it’s important nonetheless. And I don’t think this is the last we’ve heard from Kim on ancient issues of social injustice. She’s also half Irish on her mother’s side. So by this time next year, she could just be learning of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland. Maybe then, we’ll see Kim attacking Great Britain for its continued oppression of the Irish people. Wouldn’t that be something?”